Works For Me Wednesday--Wound Care

During the past month I have changed more band-aids than most parents do in their entire career as a parent. Toby has required up to four band-aid changes every day to deal with his atypical tuberculosis. I have discovered two VERY simple ways to make this multiple times a day occurrence less painful. The first is chocolate. He gets up to three chocolate chips based on how wiggly he was during the change. I keep a small container of these little bits in his wound care kit. Usually he gets three, but he knows that if he's wiggly or fights us at all he loses one or even two. (And he doesn't argue about it if he does lose one!)

The second tip I have is one that I personally consider sheer brilliance if I do say so myself. Before I put on a new bandage I fold a tiny portion of the long sticky end of the band-aid over on itself. That way there is a spot to grab onto when you have to remove it (instead of having to pick and pick and pick at it to grab it to take it off). A nurse did this on accident once during an immunization session and I took it and ran with it! I told her to do it every single time she put a band-aid on a kid. She, not having kids herself, nodded at the crazy mommy lady and went on her merry little way. Someday she'll understand...

And that, my dear readers, works for me. :) Shannon's got lots of other ideas over at her blog. Head over there and see if you can find something that works for you!

One down, three to go...

This weekend marked a significant milestone in our parenting.

When we were discussing parenting children we decided that Jim would be responsible for the primary birds and bees lesson for the boys and I would appropriately educate any girls we had. And Evan James was born. And Aidan Michael was born. And Tobias Andrew was born. And I was feeling like I may just be able to slide through life without giving THE TALK to anyone when Avery Rose was born. Oh well, close call.

So, Evan had started asking questions and we had started dancing around THE actual TALK and until yesterday that plan worked out pretty well for us. However, we decided that whatever information Evan thought he had was likely flawed and that we should just bite the bullet and set him straight.

I was just getting into a nap after lunch clean up yesterday when Jim whomped me on the leg. "Where's that book we have with the illustrations of the human body?" "Huh? It should be on the shelf, if it's not there I have no idea." "Great, thanks. I'm teaching Evan about s @ x today." So much for that nap!

So, I putter around desperately wishing I were a fly on the wall listening to that conversation. I understood, however, that manly things were happening upstairs in Evan's bedroom and I knew I had to let them happen.

Bottom line, Evan had no idea that Daddies had to take part in the actual conception of a baby. And he was appropriately disgusted at the thought of the actual act of conception of a baby. So, now we have an appropriately educated eight year old with enough knowledge to be dangerous and STRICT instructions to keep his knowledge to himself!

Jim's take on the conversation is on his blog. He tells it better than I can.

In other kid cuteness...

I was out with Toby just by himself this evening. The following discussion took place:

"Mom, when R's dad dies I'll be his dad."

Toby and I had a lengthy discussion this evening about his Sunday School teachers' family. The end result? When Mr. SS Teacher dies, Toby will fill in as Mrs. SS Teacher's husband so those kids will have a daddy. I think it is important to note here that R is currently older than Toby (who is currently 3) and Mr. and Mrs. Sunday School Teachers are my age! Toby was very somber and serious throughout the entire discussion and man oh man did I do my best to seriously listen and converse about this topic!

So, overall we're having some great conversations here in Tara's World! And we're trying our darndest to keep a straight face through most of them.

Bye bye 2008

Tomorrow begins the difficult task of trying to remember to write 2009 on our checks. And since we don't write many checks anymore compliments of the check card, that may take a while.

Anywho, Toby's back up and kicking. We ended up not having to unpack and repack the wound. Why the change in treatment? Several days post-op I took him back in to get the wound cared for by the ENT doc. It took four adults to hold him down. I looked at them and asked, "and I'm supposed to do this how many times a day???" He said, "just drip peroxide on the packing. It will wick into the wound. Do that 2-4 times a day." Thank you very much! A week later Daddy took him in to have it unpacked. With a brief talking to Toby lay on the table without so much as a nurse holding his hand. :) So, now we're down to changing the bandaid several times a day and dripping peroxide on the wound. He's on the upswing. And the final diagnosis? Atypical tuberculosis. Something about rugrats eating dust bunnies in old houses. I don't understand either.

As Jim recently noted, Avery is talking up a storm. Her favorite thing to do in the van is call, "Mama...Mama...MAMA" until I answer her and then she proceeds to give her dissertation on some sort of topic that only she understands.

Others have noted and we agree with them that Evan has softened a bit around the edges. Don't tell his friends, but he's spent hours playing house with Avery this break! She gives him a baby doll and a dolly stroller, takes one for herself and they stroll around our basement. Very sweet. He's great with the other brothers as well. Despite the fact that we have Toys R Us in our basement they've discovered the cast-aside costume box and have entertained themselves for much of Christmas break running around with bare chests and plastic weapons playing Indians.

Aidan is still Aidan. Being the middle child he is very content to do what the others are doing. He was so proud of himself for doing "tons" of preschool work one morning. He's so happy to just do what the others are doing!

And finally, we have a big announcement from the our family! No, put your jaw back up, we're not pregnant. We've finally joined the world of high speed internet! The only problem is that in switching over I've lost my bookmarks. So, if you know I read your blog, or you wish I would, could you please leave me a comment with a link to it so I can??? Yes, that includes you Leah, Em, Jen, Mel....

Thanks a bunch and have a great 2009!

Big day for a little guy

The Monday before Thanksgiving Toby woke up with a big swollen lump under his jaw. Figuring it was allergy related I gave him some ibuprofen and benedryl and started to wait it out. That Tuesday when he woke up it was bigger and had a purple tinge to it. Jim took him to the doctor where he got a shot of antibiotics, a blood draw and a prescription for some antibiotics. Ten days later, the thing is still not smaller, but that wasn't supposed to alarm us, after all, we were told that it could be a couple weeks before the swelling went down.

The swelling continued to not go down.

This past Friday Toby woke up wiht the big swollen lump under his jaw which also happened to be red, hot and hard. I took him in to the doctor where he got another blood draw, an appointment with ultrasound to look inside the lump and a referral to ENT (ear, nose and throat) to check it out.

So, Monday (just a couple days ago) he got the lump ultrasounded and had his appointment with ent which resulted in a treatment plan which involved an "incision and drain".

So, Tuesday (just yesterday) Toby went in for his first real surgery. I took him in at 8:00 and they did all the pre-op questions and forms. At 8:43 Grandpa showed up to make sure his Toby was going to be okay. At 8:44 they wheeled Toby off to the OR. Grandpa and I sat in the "holding tank" to wait for him to come back. Yes, everything turned out just fine. He came through the surgery with flying colors, came through the anesthesia with flying limbs (he was very delusional when he came out, shouting, kicking, screaming, pulling at the bandages, unconsolable, a shot of something in the iv and he settled down).

I took him home around 11:30. Once home he proceeded to eat seven mini-corn dogs and two hot ham and cheese sandwiches. I figured he would be fine! He went to bed last night at 5:30 and we saw or heard nothing out of him until 8:00 this morning!

So, now begins the fun. We leave the bandages as they are until Friday. Dr. ENT removes the bandages, cleans out the wound and re-packs it. Then my fun starts. Every day, several times a day, I (or someone appointed by me) will be unpacking the wound, scrubbing it out with peroxide and re-packing it.

Lovely.

So, how is your week going???

Nutritional Education

This morning Toby stumbled into the kitchen.

"Morning Tobs! What do you want for breakfast?"

"Ice cream." (He'd seen the box of rock salt in the same area as the cereal is kept. Since it has a picture of ice cream on the side we assume he thought it was some sort of ice cream cereal or something. Hard to know what goes on in the three-year-old brain.)

"Okay, you can have ice cream for breakfast!"

I then got out the ice cream, bowl and spoon for him. He looked at me like I was from Mars. Jim looked at me like I was from Mars. I dished up some ice cream for Toby, handed him a banana and a glass of grape juice and told him to dig in.

Aidan came down.

"Mo-o-o-o-m!!! Toby's eating ice cream for breakfast!!!"

"I know. Do you want some?"

"Uh, well, sure!"

So, I dish up the same breakfast for Aidan.

Evan came down soon after.

"Mom, you're giving them ice cream for breakfast?"

"Yup, do you want some?"

"Uh, no." He pours himself a bowl of cereal.

So, I gave half of the kids ice cream for breakfast. Avery slept in past the ice cream hour so she got oatmeal. Hopefully they'll remember the day that Mom gave them ice cream for breakfast. But just to make sure, maybe I should do it more often. Not on a regular basis of course, but a handful of times in the upcoming years. Just so they remember that I wasn't always intent on following the rules.

Does this count?

The other day this was our menu for lunch:

mashed potatoes and gravy (I did add some cauliflower to the mashed potatoes, extra veggies!)
peaches
yogurt

Boring? Yes, but very kid friendly!

I'm running out of fresh ideas for lunches. What do your kids like? What do you remember having for lunch as a kid?

Christmas gifts

Last night I had a Hallmark card moment with Evan. He was in the shower, I went into the bathroom and noticed that there was no sign of a towel or anything that could be used as a towel (I don't think he'd use the purple fuzzy bathmat!). I asked him what he was planning to do and he very politely asked me if I would please get him a towel. I did of course and brought it in to him. With him still safely behind the shower curtain I got, "thanks, Mom. You do a lot of stuff around the house that you don't really have to do, you buy us lots of Christmas gifts. You don't have to do any of that, so, well, thanks. I appreciate it."

What a great Christmas gift!

I was also in email conversation with my mom earlier in the week. The long and short of the conversation resulted in my offering to make a donation to a charity in their names rather than buying them something they don't really need and would just end up cluttering their smallish apartment. I emailed her a list of possible charities that *I* would choose, she chose something different. Mom, tell us all why you chose the Hospice of *Your old hometown*!

We have recently "adopted" a child through Compassion International (www.compassion.com). If I had someone ask me to pick a charity I'd make a special gift to our other "son" Adrian in Equador.

My question for discussion is this: If someone offered to donate to a charity in your name, what charity would you choose? Something political? Something that helps kids in Africa buy shoes? Something that helps kids next door buy shoes? A food shelf? A humane society? An elder care facility?

What would you do???

Reality

Aside from hosting Works For Me Wednesday, Shannon also has a special guest blogger on Thursdays. In her "What I'd Like You To Know" series Shannon invites women who have had various experiences to share with the blogosphere how to help other women who are experiencing such things. She's invited women with multiples, infertility, women with large families and women with only one child to tell us the things that are helpful and the things that are hurtful to say when we encounter other women in that situation. Today she has asked Tara Mock to share about coping with post partum depression. You can read Tara's post here.

I am including the link to her discussion because I have experienced post partum depression. It was quietly lurking in the background after Evan and Aidan's births, but reared it's ugly head full force after Toby was born (and was a pretty difficult baby). While my ppd didn't look like this Tara's, it was evident to my friends and family that I needed some help in getting through it. And so, in a tear filled conversation with the nurse line at my OBs, I got started on the road to help.

I heard a talk at my MOPS group this fall that stated that women are more susceptible to bouts of depression at certain times of their lives. Those times include the onset of puberty, pre-menstrual, post partum, peri-menopausal, and menopause. So, basically from the time we're thirteen until the time we die! And here's the kicker, Christians are not exempt. Praying more, having more faith, spending more quiet time, that doesn't necessarily make a difference. Sometimes your brain needs some chemicals straightened out and sometimes that involves medication.

So, if you suspect you or someone you are close to could use some help getting through this valley, do them (and their family) a favor. Mention it to her. Offer to watch her kids so she can go to talk with her doctor. Make her dinner so she won't have to feed her family a frozen pizza, again. And most of all, pray for her, pray with her and encourage her that it will get better.

Taking Time to Make Time

Since the move I've not really been cooking much. I attribute part of that to my crummy oven which I'm hoping to replace before too long, but the other part is that with the unpacking and getting settled in and the last week and a half of kids and adults being sick, I have just not been doing much in the kitchen department.

One of the bonus features of this new house is it's chest freezer. Imagine the deep freeze that your grandma had in the basement. Now go back in time about fifty years and imagine that freezer. That's the monster I have in MY basement! Today I began to fill it. It currently contains:

11 batches of chili ready to go for our freezer meal swap next week
4 batches of the gravy for beef tips and gravy (waiting for the 1/8 a cow coming in a week or two)
2 batches of the guts for mini cheddar meatloaves (waiting for the 1/8 a cow coming in a week or two)
2 batches of anniversary chicken
2 batches of taco meat
5 cups of browned ground beef ready for spaghetti sauce or whatever
4 quarts and 2 pints of instant oatmeal mix (storing this in the freezer for lack of anywhere else to put that much oatmeal!)

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but who knows??? :) And that's what I did today. What did you do???

Tater Takes A Turn

Yup. Aidan's turn.

Thus far Evan is the only one not affected by whatever stomach virus we have had. Pray that he doesn't get it. He's a lousy patient! ;)

I'm buying stock in clorox wipes.

A fun giveaway

I entered my name on a fun giveaway post with the stipulation that I would in turn host the same giveaway on my blog.



Here are the rules.
"I will make a handmade gift for the first 3 interested people who comment on this post and I have 365 days (ample time) to do it in. I can assure you, it won’t take that long to receive your gift…but it will be a surprise when you do…one of those “when you least expect it” moments. You must have a blog to join in and be willing to do the same for three other people."

So, I'm looking for the first three comments! You need to have a way for me to contact you in your comment so I can get your snail mail address so I can send your present! Yes, those who I know in real life are eligible as well!

EDITED TO NOTE: And, just to shake things up a bit, I've set the comments to "hide" so leave a comment, you never know if you're one of the first three...until I email you asking you for your address!! Also, you must be able and willing to keep the ball rolling with the Pay It Forward giveaway on your own blog!

And the Hits Just Keep on Coming

Hi, it's not Tara. It's Jim hijacking Tara's blog.

We would like you to know that 33 continues to be a disaster for the usual author of this blog. At about 12:20 a.m. she made her first of several offerings to the porcelain deity. I took the opportunity to head for the basement and sleep on the couch, insulated from the reality of what else is going on in my house.

So let's hear the menu for Thanksgiving:

Breakfast: cereal and pop-tarts as usual.

Lunch: Pancakes for those who can; saltines for those who can't. I make outstanding pancakes. You should try them.

Dinner: Pizza and green beans for those who can; oyster crackers for those who can't.

Thank God we did not try to drive to South Dakota yesterday. Avery's still hurling frequently and Tara's in rough shape as well. I have done most of the everything today including almost finished painting the boys' room.

Did someone say this was a vacation??

Jim, not...

33? So far, not so good!

Last Friday I turned 33. Birthday wishes came in and a couple of fun gifts were had. (Hats off to Aunt Teresa! Love the bag and fun goodies inside! Kudos to everyone else also, fun stuff!!) Last Friday Mel and I took the five kids we have between us to our indoor playground. Last Friday Mel and Emily arranged for Emily to drive about 1 1/2 hours down to surprise me for my birthday! Yeah, Mel! Last Friday was opening night for the play Jim directed, so we postponed any celebrations so that Jim could, well, do the play. I rented a RedBox movie that was the girliest girly movie I could find, put the three littles to bed early, made buffalo popcorn chicken from the frozen department at Walmart and watched my movie. Alone. And ate my buffalo popcorn chicken alone without having to share even one little nibble. It was lovely.

Then something terrible happened. Saturday. I woke up on Saturday morning with the worst back pain I have ever had in my life. I said multiple times that I'd rather be having a baby than this pain. I was not able to stand up and breathe at the same time. Literally. I could not brush my own hair and could barely stand to have Jim do it for me. And Saturday was the matinee for the play. And we had already arranged for a sitter (and I wouldn't have missed it even if I WAS having a baby!). So, I hauled my sorry little self to the school with Aidan and watched the play. It was great, full of fun and mystery and comedy and even a few written in one liners about today's economy! :)

Sunday I could at least walk and breathe at the same time, though lifting the kidlets was pretty much out of the question. Sunday night Jim and I took the fam out to Applebee's for a high falutin' kind o' evening. We had a gift card of course, so the feeding of the five thousand only cost us $16. Woo hoo!

Monday Toby woke up with a swollen cheek. Weird. So I gave him some ibuprofen and benedryl and watched it. Nothing happened. Mommy instinct wasn't too terribly concerned since there wasn't a fever, no decrease in appetite or activity and his immunizations were up to date (and he probably hadn't been exposed to mumps anyway). Jim and I told ourselves that if it wasn't better in the morning then someone would take him in.

Tuesday...bump still there, seems to have more of a purple tinge than it used to. I go to MOPS and call the doc from there. We make an appointment for 2:45. Avery's MOPPETs worker tells me that she may not be feeling well because she was a little clingy today. Okay, duly noted, thankyouverymuch.

Tuesday after lunch. Begin the long afternoon of washing crib sheets, blankets, pillows, hair, and making sure that the beloved pink blanket is clean at all times. Call Jim and see if he can swing taking Toby to the doctor because dang it I cannot possibly take three kids to the doctor the littlest of whom happens to be a veritable fountain of yuck. Jim can manage. He doesn't do fountains of yuck well.

Tuesday afternoon passes with more yuck from Avery. This on top of a diagnosis for Toby. He has an infection in the submandibular gland. What the? That means he has to have a shot of a mega big antibiotic in his leg, a blood draw and a round of mega antibiotics for 10 days to culminate in another blood draw on Friday to see if the antibiotics are winning or if the infection is winning.

Tuesday night we decide that between the yuck fountain and the jaw infection we should maybe ought to consider canceling our trip to South Dakota to visit the relatives. Boo. :(

And Wednesday? Well, my back is still tender, not up to 100%. Avery has been napping for over four hours which is marvelous. Aidan and Toby are trying to slowly drive me to the loony bin. Jim and Evan are out somewhere in town cleaning some old guy's gutters.

If this is a preview of 33, I'll skip it thankyouverymuch!

WFMW

Yeseterday morning I was talking with my friend, Mel, and asked her what her plan was for the day. She said she was going to go to Walmart. I had a couple of things to get/return to Walmart and other errands in that area of town, so I offered her a trade. She would return my movie, sell my kid's too small winter coat, pick up my milk and chicken and return my light bulbs. I would watch her two kids. That's a total of three stops she could make speedy quick because she didn't have her two kids with her and three errands I wouldn't have to do with three kids in full winter gear. It took her approximately half a nanosecond to agree to the deal and she brought over her kidlets a little while later.

Remember how sometimes it is actually less work to have extra kids? Well, yesterday that was mostly the case. I got a bunch of housework done and also got the ugly 80s country blue floral wallpaper removed from my kitchen! With FIVE kids in the house ages 5 and under! Woo Hoo!

So, what works for me? Swapping errand running for child care! Shannon has lots of other ideas linked up at her place. Zip on over there and see if there is something for you today!

Adventures in moving

Why I haven't blogged...

Hummm, I fell of the moving truck and have been in a coma for the past week? Nope. My computer has been in storage for a week and a half and I'm just now getting back online? Sadly, no, the computer was up and running within the first 24 hours. The truth? Moving has pooped me right on down to nothing. At the end of the evening when I would usually write my arms hurt too much from lifting of both kids and boxes that I simply cannot do more than move the mouse around clicking aimlessly on other peoples' blogs. :) Pathetic, I know.

The house is great. I love it. Jim has come around and loves it, too. We joke that we must be the only 30 somethings in America who are downsizing. Square foot for square foot the house IS actually bigger than our last house. It has more individual rooms, the rooms are just smaller than most of the other rooms so things that used to fit together no longer fit together! I've got junk flying out of the house on freecycle deals. Right now I'm trying to figure out a creative way to have a desk on the main level. There is a mini desk type area in the dining room. My computer monitor takes up half of it. The keyboard takes up a quarter of it. Various dumping ground junk takes up the rest. Not very conducive to work I tell you! Hello, Mac or Dell people? Send me a laptop. I'll love you forever. :) And while you're at it? Send me some high speed internet. I was on slow dial up before. Looking at my numbers I'm half the speed I was at the old house. Oh well. Money is earmarked for other things like groceries and other household stuff right now!

The kids have done phenomenally well with the move. Everyone is getting settled into their rooms. Evan has decided he's into football, specifically the Vikings, so he's going to have a football themed room. Aidan and Toby currently have a hot pink and black room with a SpongeBob lightswitch plate (teenaged girl here before). They'll end up with a camo decor. Avery has a white room with white trim, mostly white carpet and a white door. She's getting pink or purple on the bottom with a fun girly buggy butterfly border and white or yellow above it. Thank you goes to Lowes for having their in-stock wallpaper and borders on clearance for $5 and $3 a piece! I'm all stocked up. Now to get painting...

Well, Toby's the only one I have to take care of right now. Aidan and Evan went with Dad to go pick up the last remnants of our life in the country. Avery's asleep. I think Toby and I will go swap out some lightswitch covers. Knowing Toby all I'll have to do is make sure he doesn't stick the screwdriver in the sockets! :)

Bye bye guineas

We move tomorrow. That fact was pretty real last night as we, and by we I mean Scam and Jim, moved out my washing machine and dryer and loaded them on the truck. Today I finish boxing up (and tossing out) more junk. The kids have been abducted by aliens. I hope after the move to unpack a box and find my real, nice, well behaved children again.

The two guinea hens we have left are on the deck. They're huge, ugly and I think they're saying goodbye. Every now and then one pecks on the window. And every now and then one poops on the deck. Sorry, Em!

So, I'm off to finish packing up the stuff we won't be using in the next 20 hours. Yikes! Just twenty short hours until we close on this chapter on our lives and open a new book. And part of those hours will be spent sleeping (hopefully).

Okay, I'm shutting down now. I'll see you from our new house in a few days!

November 5, 2008

To my conservative readers: With the turn of the election, please remember to pray for our nation, our leaders, and yes, even our president-elect Obama. Pray that God will soften his heart and turn him towards Himself. Pray for the safety of our troops, pray for discernment for our president and his advisors. We still live in one nation, under God, indivisible.

And to my liberal readers: Don't blame me, I voted for McCain. :)

Edited to add a hilarious moment from my morning. Avery was toddling around the parlor/office area. She made a mad dash for the stairs, climbed up a few, turned around and hollered at the top of her little toddler voice, "bye bye, see ya!"

GO VOTE!!!

Just a quick reminder to go vote today! And if you live near me, let me know if you want me to come watch your kidlets for you while you go take care of your duty as an American citizen!

I won something!!!

A week or so ago I found a link to a link to a link to a website with a giveaway! There were several prizes available one of which was a free blog header design. Well, you're looking at that winner!

Melissa in the land down under (again with Australia!) worked tirelessly while I slept the night away. This morning I woke up to this beautiful design! I absolutely love it, but it is posing a bit of a problem. My good friend Mel also has the same problem. You see, whenever Mel gets a new pretty notebook (not the plain spiral ones, but the pretty journal-type ones) she hesitates to write in it for fear of messing it up! In trying to find just the right topic for my first "pretty" post, I couldn't figure something out to justify using up some of my pretty new blog!

Okay, so that doesn't make much sense. But, between the packing and the laundry and the packing and the wiping and the packing and the other myriad of things that this mamma has to get done in a day it was the best I could come up with! So, thanks again, Melissa. I love my new pretty blog and promise to write in it much more frequently once we move!

I've Gone International!

Hello! If you're here from Tina's blog, welcome! Pull up a chair, sit back with a cup of something nice and warm to drink (since here in MN it's nearly freezing!) and enjoy! Take a trip through the archives if you're really bored. :)

And, if you're one of my regulars, I've gone international, Australia to be specific. And while I'd love to say I'm live blogging from the land down under alas, I am only appearing as a guest blogger on her blog! I've been reading Tina's blog for I have no idea how long now. She's witty and she also has a whole houseful of young'uns, five to be exact. So, if you're interested in seeing what else I have to say today you can head over here!